WELCOME TO THE BLOG
This blog serves my columns as an archive, a place to add footnotes,data sources and drafts of my weekly 550 word column for the Sky Hi News.(www.skyhidailynews.com) Often these drafts are posted on my Facebook page, The Muftic Forum.. To learn more about the posting subject, click onto the links at the end of the posting.Blog will be on vacation May 28-June 25 2018, with sporadic to no postings during that time.
I remove comments containing expletives and not in English.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

The United Kingdom’s vote to exit from the European Union
(Brexit) will be a learning experience for those of us in the United States.
The question becomes if the Brexit vote validates Donald Trump’s strategy of
tapping into similar currents in the United States or backfires on him. The answer to that depends upon what happens
in the United Kingdom during the next four months and if financial impacts in
the United States get anyone’s attention.

It appears that driving the United Kingdom’s vote were same
currents that are feeding the support for Donald Trump: “Our nation should
control its own destiny, borders, and laws and to heck with international
cooperation and trade .We do not like all of those foreigners who are migrating
to our own country, especially if they are not people like us.” The demographics of those voting in favor of
Brexit in the UK were also similar to
the supporters of Donald Trump, less educated, unhappy with the unequal distribution of
wealth, and from rural and “rust belt” areas.

If the United Kingdom
breaks up as Scotland or Northern Ireland vote to leave the
United Kingdom, the lesson for Brexit supporters is that sloganeering of “making our country great again” or “the UK
First” had the opposite effect, making “ our country weaker, poorer and smaller again” . Balkanization has never been good for
economies or peace and bargaining power belongs to the larger, stronger.

A breakup of the UK is the most likely consequence: The
irony is Trump owned golf courses are located in Scotland which voted
overwhelmingly to remain in the United Kingdom, not in favor of Brexit.
Recently a Scottish referendum to leave the UK was defeated because the winning
argument was that the UK was in the European Union which the Scottish concluded
they wanted. That has been turned upside down by the Brexit vote and it is
highly possible another referendum to leave the UK would win this time since Scottish (and Northern Ireland )
membership in the EU could only be achieved by
their independence.

If the UK slips into a
recession, and capital flees elsewhere with job loss and a crash of the pound
results price inflation, the lesson is that making decisions based on anger, xenophobia,
hyper nationalism and immigration policy leads to even greater pain of a bad
economy that hurts the most those who
voted for Brexit.

The lesson for us in the US is “beware what you wish” Anger
and bigotry do not necessarily result in good economic policies in the public
interest. The most direct impact on the United States by the Brexit vote would
be on holders of 401K’s and retirement accounts if the US financial markets are
slow to recover from what appears initially to be very bad news.

Donald Trump’s reaction to the Brexit win was typical of his
egocentric, self-serving viewpoint. This may be good for his golf resort
business if the pound collapses, he said in the morning after the UK vote,
making it cheaper for US tourists to come to the UK to play golf at his Scottish
golf courses. That was good business for him, but not for the loss of value of
401k’s or retiree accounts, or anyone else, for that matter.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

There are many in
Grand County who have more than a passing interest in what happens to NATO. They still have family in eastern European
countries that are current members of NATO and were once Soviet satellites. Lithuanians and Poles have settled here and have become respected
members of our community. Those countries belong to NATO. Other Eastern European settlers in Grand
County from countries not in NATO are Russians and Moldovans.

Lithuanians,
Latvians, and Estonians (the three Baltic States) and Poles in particular must
be looking at alarming statements from Donald Trump for his comments that “We
don’t really need NATO in its current form. NATO is obsolete…if we have to
walk, we walk.” Many look with raised eyebrows at the sometimes called “bromance” with Russian
President Vladimir Putin. Putin called Trump "a
brighter person, talented without a doubt." Putin reiterated has
admiration of Donald Trump June 19 on Fareed Zakaria ‘s CNN program, as well as
asking why the West still needs NATO.

Trump’s public
assertion that not only is NATO obsolete, but their members are not living up
to their promises to contribute. There is far more at stake than money.

Russia is on the
march in a seeming attempt to reassemble former Soviet satellites , restoring
past glories. Russians also resent and
fear their former neighboring buffer
states becoming NATO members and permitting missile defense installations (even
if the defense systems are turned toward the Middle East) . Their grabbing or helping surrogates grab parts
of non NATO members of Georgia, the Crimea and eastern Ukraine has been seen as
a threat in particular to the NATO member Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia. NATO was quick to move more
forces to the Baltics in response as a warning to Russia not to mess with
members of NATO. Without NATO, the small Baltic states in particular would be
vulnerable to a Crimea and Ukraine like grabs, making Poland and Romania
especially at risk. In his June CNN comments, Putin slyly ignored Russia’s land
grabs which would have answered his question of Why NATO?

There may not be a
conspiracy involved, just a case of Trump’s ignorance or isolationist advocacy
or wanting to make a deal with Russia, but there is an interesting connection with
his most inner advisor. It is his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was a political consultant
to once president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
Yanukovych was attempting to stop some in his country who wanted greater trade
ties with the West, while he was closely connected to Russia and wanted his country to be more connected to
them. A revolution followed in 2014.
During that revolution, Yanukovych fled first to the eastern Ukraine and
now resides in exile in Russia.

Many in the United
States’ foreign relations community on both sides of the aisle look at Donald Trump’s foreign policy with
alarm. A particularly large howl was
raised in a March open letter by 121 GOP national security leaders. George W Bush’s secretary of State, Richard
Armitage, announced this month June,2016, he would
vote for Hillary Clinton.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/06/16/richard-armitage-plans-vote-hillary-clinton/he
would vote for Hillary Clinton.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Fareed Zakaria of CNN has a must see hour special that seeks
to explain why “they hate us”, to answer a puzzle. Why are the jihadi Muslims killing mostly
Muslims as well as some of us? He concludes
that these radical terrorists are at war with the modern world and all who
embrace it. This also might explain why nightclubs in Paris and the gay night club in Orlando were chosen for
terrorist acts. Embedded in Zakaria’s special is that it all began in Greeley,
Colorado, and the top Al Qaeda English language recruiter was a student at
Colorado State University and a former resident of Denver.

The
modern seeds of a revolt had already been planted in Greeley in
1947 per Zakaria. An Egyptian foreign student with beliefs firmly
immersed in traditional Islam attended a church dance was appalled by all the bare skin, tight fitting
dresses, and close up dancing. He
returned home, and wrote a series of books which exhorted a return to Sharia
law and traditional Islamic values as practiced in the 8th century. That resonated with an older Islamic movement
of Wahhabism. Its clerics cherry picked
verses in the Koran (which had contradictory passages, as well) to foster a
belief in a return to Islam as practiced
in medieval times and exhorted killing those who did not follow their religious
interpretation, including Muslims . Zakaria believes that a small percentage of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are
followers of this interpretation. The
movement became the driving ideology
behind ISIS , al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

A New Mexico
born Muslim student at Colorado State University visited post- Soviet invasion
Afghanistan and was appalled by the poverty and conditions. He became the American voice of al- Qaeda recruitment, Anwar al Awlaki. While he was killed in Yemen by US strikes,
as was his Denver born son, his voice lives on in al -Qaeda’s recruiting
videos.

I am not
surprised with Zakaria’s conclusion. In
1959, during spring break travels in my junior year abroad in Berlin, I took a
trip throughout all of what was then Yugoslavia, and I became fascinated with
a culture, the moderate, westernized Turkish oriented
Muslims in Bosnia, once a province of
Turkey and later a separate country. On my return to Northwestern University in
spent my senior year learning more about the modernization of a secular Turkey,
on Islam, and the impact on people who were struggling within themselves to
become part of the modern world. We concluded the religion was locked into very conservative traditional values. Sometime in the future, there would be a
revolt against all things Western.

But
Islam is not the only religion in revolt against modern society. So are
fundamentalist movements in Christianity
and Judaism, as Karen Armstrong wrote in 2000 in “A Battle for God”. Donald
Trump, who wants to make American Great Again, has tapped into that yearning
for the old order while using bigotry
and racism to make his point.

American
security depends upon cooperation of the 3.3 million Muslims in the United States and our Arab
allies abroad. We should not fall for
hate speech that paints all Muslims with the same brush. Such rhetoric
is harmful for our national security as former CIA director Michael
Hayden said, Trump’s rhetoric has “already made America less safe”.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Will Donald Trump be unhorsed at their party convention? No. He has the votes and the support of his base.That is because 65% of the GOP do not believe Trump's attack on the judge was racist. The provisions of the Constitution and amendments are clear on so many levels...from rule of law and independent judiciary to religious tests to civil rights and protection of minorities are so involved in his statements. He may himself not be racist and he is angry at the judge, but he used racism to make his case. That is very disturbing and the sign of very dangerous demagogue. It is especially serious in this case where he is using his bully pulpit as a candidate of a political party to protect his own financial interests and not even a political or moral issue. The connection is thatif all looked at Trump U and how it was marketed, it would verify charges that he is a con man that is a minimum unethical. The implications of the impact on an independent judiciary and the rule of law were carefully spelled out by Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren yesterday. http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/08/yougov-poll-51-say-trumps-comments-about-judge-were-racist-65-of-republicans-say-https://gma.yahoo.com/elizabeth-warren-call-donald-trump-loud-nasty-thin-090148066--abc-news-topstories.htmlhttp://www.c-span.org/video/?410847-2/vice-president-joe-biden-delivers-remarks-american-constitution-societys-2016-conventionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzLMf6QGONQ For Warren's speech

Thursday, June 9, 2016

The question is why Donald Trump can get away with racist remarks and still keep his base's support. The reason, over 65% of Republicans do not believe his attack on a judge ruling in a case that affected his business interest was disqualified because of his Mexican heritage was racist. Either they are in denial out of loyalty to their party or support of Trump or they truly harbor racist feelings themselves and are reluctant to admit it or are ignorant of the Constitution. http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/08/yougov-poll-51-say-trumps-comments-about-judge-were-racist-65-of-republicans-say-

Even worse, they and Donald Trump have no concept of one of the basic premises on which America was founded, as Joe Scarborough so elequently pointed out today on MSNBC Mourning Joe, citing agreement by such diverse founders as Madison to Jefferson. Trump's attack on the judge based upon his heritage buts up to fundamental provisions in the Constitution, freedom or religion and non discrimination based upon religion and the independence of the judiciary.

Scarborough owed the Muslim Ban proposed by Trump to his using fear of Muslims to advance his candidacy, playing on dislike of 1.4 billion practioners of their religion. For that reason, the racist and prejudicial position could be explained, but the danger is that violating that principle allows those who dislike Jews, or even those who do not like Southern Baptists, or anyone else they disliked, could ban them as well and disqualify them or pass discriminatory laws against them.

The background of why freedom of religion was so important to our founders was that when given the opportunity to discriminate or persecute those who worshipped differently, was that the colonialists who came to America to escape discrimination and persecution themselves, were themselves practitionist of religious discrimination. http://www.skyhidailynews.com/news/16324802-113/muftic-freedom-of-religion-so-often-misunderstood

For anti discrimination clauses in the Constitution, visit http://finduslaw.com/us-constitution-5th-14th-amendments

For the most conservative view of "religious tests" provisions in the Constitution, an argument used against the Muslim ban, see http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/6/essays/135/religious-test

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The reaction to Donald Trump's use of racism to divert attention from a class action law suit concerning Trump University that would verify claims that he was a con man leaves the Republican Party in a sad position. It is now the party of tolerance of racism. In reaction,House Majority leader Paul Ryan, highest ranking GOP official, refused to withdraw his recent endorsement of Trump, While Ryan was admitting Trump's comments regarding the judge with Mexican roots in the case would be biased because of that, Ryan's rationale was that Trump is the best bet to get Ryan's agenda enacted. Much of the rest of GOP leaders have fallen in line, even while acknowledging that Trump's remarks were racist.

Some gave their excuse that was similar to Ryan's. They expressed hope that Trump would retract his statements and start behaving. Trump's racism and bigotry, whether he believes it or not, have become the statements of record, For him to change his spots or apologize for such statements is neither part of his character nor is it possible to erase evidence of his real feelings with any credibility.

The message is loud and clear. Even when admitting Trump's comments are racist and still maintaining their endorsements of him, they put winning their races or issues over the immorality of racism, the independence of the judiciary, and the anti discrimination clauses in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For the party, winning trumps those civil rights in importance and in constitutional matters. Added to the attempts to restrict minority and elderly voter access to the ballot box in Republican coordinated state by state legislative efforts, the Republican Party even more has become the party that harbors and tolerates practitioners and their fellow travelers of racism and bigotry.

The GOP down ballot candidates need to be put on the spot about where they stand on Trump's racist statements and on racism in general. That is a challenge their Democratic Party opponents can easily make, especially in swing states with large minority populations and a history of supporting civil rights.

Scrutiny of the Trump University class action law suits should not be buried in the flap over Donald Trump's racist charges against the judge hearing the class action suit who authorized releasing some of the court records. It may tell a lot about his ethics and his sincere caring about those he promises to help. The suit will not go to trial until after the November election, but releasing some of the court documents, as the judge did, could shed some light on why consumers sued and what they are charging.

My antenna is still raised when I smell a con game. Many years ago I was the director of a white collar and consumer fraud unit for local district attorneys .Later, I was the public trustee of Denver supervising foreclosures and even later as an executive with non profit Consumer Credit Counselling Services in Denver.

I smelled a con game when I heard about this suit. The scheme of holding seminars, charging big bucks, and marketing to those who were in need of additional income, not necessarily those who had the wherewith all to make use of the information in the seminars, has been around for a long time. Trump University took this to another level, turning it into a major marketing opportunity to make a dime. High pressure sales tactics appeared to have been used to target lower middle income participants to max out credit cards and to buy extensive educational material, whether they were financially able to afford what the Trump U school taught or even to afford to participate.

Is this a crime? Not all unethical business practices are criminal, but if the participants feel they have been sold with deceptive trade or advertising practices, it could be criminal or civil. Promising blue sky high returns while knowing participants could never or were unlikely to realize their investments is an example of this. Criminal prosecution may get the perpetrators in jail or fined, but the victims would probably not get their money back. Cvil suits are easier to prove than criminal charges and c ivil suits are the method needed to get restitution. It is particularly sad when victims are lower income and could not sue individually, to get refunds. because of the cost of attorney fees, as they appear to be in the Trump case. In the Trump University case, those who felt victimized have been represented in a class action suit which allows attorneys on their own dime to represent all of those who feel victimized, gambling if they win the suit and get compensated for their time and efforts, as well as getting money back for all in the "class".

At the risk of embarrassing a good friend of mine, here is a story worth repeating. Over ten years ago and freshly retired, she asked me about "investing" her money in a course to learn how to get rich on real estate investing.

There have been and are traveling conductors of seminars held in rented hotel rooms that sound similar to the kinds of courses taught at Trump University. Those travelers charge high dollars for the "secrets' that are mostly calling on their students to borrow money to pay for their courses that then urge them to buy property, go into debt, and flip it later for a buck. Of course, that only works if a market is on the upswing or if investors have cash or the credit and means to borrow, but she was not told that. She was a single woman with few savings, living on Social Security and a small employer pension. She maxed out her credit cards and showed me the material the seminar distributed. It was mostly xeroxed newspaper clippings. I warned her. Later she told me that when she was attending the seminar, law enforcement officials raided the class room and carted away the instructors in hand cuffs. I do not know if she ever took such courses again, but her savings and cash flow went to the seminar and she never was able to invest or flip. She is now in her late 70's and in her "retirement years", she is still working to supplement her income. The only ones who usually get rich are the seminar conductors law enforcement or civil and class action plaintiffs do not catch.

Monday, June 6, 2016

The irony of it all, yet the better angels of the US eclipse the dark, ugly messages of Donald Trump
While Donald Trump doubles down on banning Muslims from the US and tells reporters yesterday, yes, he would not want hislaw suit to come before a Muslim judge, because the judge might possibly not be objective, a mosque in Louisville, Kentucky was filled with people of all faiths saying goodbye to a Muslim, a devout one, the great and beloved Muhammad Ali.http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/packed-mosque-welcomes-muhammad-ali-home-louisville-kentucky-n586226

On the same day, President Obama issued a statement on the beginning of the Muslim holy days of Ramadan, leveling criticism of Donald Trump's advocacy of a ban of Muslims coming to the US without naming him. https://www.yahoo.com/gma/president-obama-swipes-donald-trump-ramadan-statement-132118601--abc-news-topstories.html

An interfaith service, attended by dignitaries of many faiths, including Jews and Mormans will be held Friday. http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/15993271/muhammad-ali-funeral-planned-interfaith-service

These services and attendees and Presidential statements are the real spirit of the United States and that of Donald Trump represents a minority that does not grasp what makes America exceptional nor do they have any concept of the provisions in our Constitution that protects this country from bigots like him and those who buy into his views.

About Me

Felicia Muftic is a political columnist with the Sky Hi Daily News, Grand County, Colorado. She writes on current events from a pragmatic, fact based, reasoned perspective.
Felicia has nearly 50 years of involvement in politics, finance,and consumer affairs as either a fly on the wall in international, national, state and local levels or a participant.
Parallel to all of this is intense involvement for over 50 years in the the political process, serving in both cabinet and staff in the administration of Mayor Federico Pena . Partially educated in Europe and married to physician-refugee from the Balkans, her interests are not confined to US domestic problems, but she also has a world view and experiences which are often reflected in her columns.
Felicia Muftic es un columnista político del diario Sky News Hola, Grand County, Colorado. Felicia tiene casi 50 años de participación en la política, las finanzas y de asuntos del consumidor, ya sea como una mosca en la pared en la internacional, nacional, estatal y local o de un participante. Para más información, visite www.mufticforum.com